Haggai Erlich

It reconstructs the role of politicians in shaping higher education from the 1908 establishment of the Egyptian University to Anwar Sadat’s revolutionary expansion of the education system.

The other dimension is the role of students in politics.

The book analyses the influence of the higher education system on the creation of the students as an active sociopolitical class; it surveys the students’ role in major historic junctures, and describes the pivotal role of the educated youth in the making of the country's modern politics.

Haggai Erlich (born 1942) is professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and an academic adviser at the Open University of Israel where he is the head of Middle Eastern History studies.

Between 1959 and 1969 he was one of Israel leading high-jumpers and represented the country in international athletic meetings.

In the 1960s he played basketball in Israel's premier league and in 1997 won the academic staff tennis championship.

Haggai Erlich was born to a working-class family in Tel Aviv, was a member of the leftist youth movement Hashomer Hatsair and studied in the Oriental Class of Tel Aviv municipality secondary school D. He served in the Nahal paratroops battalion and as a reservist fought in the battle on Jerusalem in 1967 Six-Day War.

He composed some of the paratroops' popular songs, some of which are still in circulation.

Erlich completed his B.A. studies in Tel Aviv University in General History and History of the Middle East and Africa, and his M.A. studies in the Hebrew University under the guidance of Professor Gabriel Baer (cum laude, 1969).

His thesis was on the tribes of Yemen and their role in the civil war.

In 1973 he received his Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he wrote his thesis on the History of Ras Alula, Ethiopia's national hero, under the guidance of professors Richard Gray and Edward Ullendorff.

Erlich taught in Tel Aviv University from 1973 till his retirement in 2004.

He served there as head of graduate studies in the Middle Eastern History Department, School of History.

He was a visiting professor at Concordia, Montreal, 1978–1979, Georgetown University, 1985–1986 and 1992–1992, and in San Diego State University, 1999-2000.

He is an associate editor of Northeast African Studies, Michigan, a member of the International Committee of Ethiopian Studies, the "field expert" on Islam and the Middle East in Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Hamburg, and the head of the editorial board of the journal of Israel's Association of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (MEISA), Hamizrah Hehadash.

From 1983 he has headed the development of Middle Eastern studies in the Open University of Israel.

The program he developed from 1983, based on ten volumes of introduction he wrote himself, was recognized in 2007 by the Higher Education Council of Israel as a BA program in "the Middle East and its Cultures".

It combines the study of the history of Arab-Islamic societies with those of other societies in the region.

Erlich heads a committee at the Open University, tasked with facilitating studies for Arab students; in this context, he is also in charge of translating ten of the courses in various fields into Arabic.

In the Open University he also developed Ethiopian studies and for the purpose wrote three introductory books in Hebrew.

Erlich studies focus on Ethiopia, on the modern Middle East, and on the connections and the relations between these histories.

His studies on Ethiopia deal mainly with the internal ethnic dynamism between Tigreans and Amhara and the country's political culture as a factor in Ethiopia's survival in facing European imperialism.

His studies on the Middle East deal mainly with the development of higher education and the role of students in politics.

His studies on the relations between Ethiopia and the Middle East – a field he is pioneering — reconstruct the history of major strategic meeting points and focus mainly on the conceptual Islamic-Christian dimensions and the religious historical legacies which inspired and continue to influence those relations.

In 1989 in the World Masters Games in Denmark, he came second in the 45 – 50 category, clearing 1.65m.

In 2004 Erlich retired as emeritus from Tel Aviv University and intensified his involvement in the Open University.

He is the Landau Prize recipient for 2010 in African Studies.

A five volume history of the Middle East from 18th century developments in the Ottoman Empire to World War I, and the establishment of the modern states of the Middle East.

The narrative follows stages of modernization culminating with the emergence of modern nationalists ideas and movements, and is accompanied by hundreds of short informative articles and hundreds of authentic illustrations.

A discussion of the relations between Ethiopia and the Oriental Middle East from medieval times to the present.

It follows two interwoven aspects.

A biography of Ethiopia's national hero, Ras Alula, the general and statesman who played a central role in Ethiopia's struggle for survival in facing late 19th century imperialism.

In this context the book analyzes Ethiopia's relations with Egypt, the Mahdist Sudan, the Italians, and the British during the Scramble for Africa, and attempts at explaining Ethiopia's victories.

In the same context it analyzes Ethiopia's home affairs of the time, mainly Tigrean-Shoan relations, the establishment of Asmara and late 19th century Eritrean history.

Analysis of the birth of the Eritrean nationalist movement and fight for independence.

It focuses mainly on the internal struggles of the Eritreans as they were interwoven with two simultaneous developments: the internal affairs of Ethiopia during the time of Haile Sellassie and the beginning of Mangistu's period; and the relevant developments in the Arab world and the Arab-Israeli conflict of the time.

A collection of twelve articles which had been published in various journals, all revolving around the Ethiopian modern experience, and which in sequence constitute an attempt at understanding the country's unique success at maintaining independence.

This book follows two dimensions in the history of Egypt's modernization.

One is the

development and the evolution of the University as both a national concept and an educational institution.